Today was the first day since the race that Jean and I ran. Jean had a sore knee from the race and it still hurts some when she runs, so she stopped at 1 mile and walked. No need to aggravate an injury since there aren’t any races for a while. I ran with Corrine and Bill at an easy pace over a “Barry County flat” (for those who don’t live here, Barry County is hilly so there isn’t a place that’s really flat) four plus miles and felt great although it started raining when we got going and didn’t stop until after we had finished. Shades of Madison 2006.
Actually I’m not sure how far we ran and at what pace. Bill and I both have Garmin Forerunners. We started and ended them 7 seconds apart, so mine says we went 41 minutes and 15 seconds, ran 4.35 miles and our average pace was 9:30 per mile with a best pace of 8:03. Bill’s said we went 41 minutes and 22 seconds, ran 4.45 miles and our average pace was 9:20 per mile with a best pace in the low 7 range. So if they are GPS devices and they work off the same satellites, how can they be so much different when we run together? The “Monk” part of me is going nuts over this.
Jean and I leave Thursday for a few days in San Francisco to see the kids. Jean is freaking out because she has to leave her Thursday and Tuesday weight lifting group in someone else’s hands. I’ll try to keep her in control out there so she doesn’t go through the “personal trainer DTs”.
Next Sunday Matt and I will swim the Tiburon Mile. As many of you know it’s a San Francisco Bay swim from Angel Island to Tiburon. If you are interested, the web site for the race is http://www.rcptiburonmile.com/ . The last e-mail I received listed some of the elite swimmers that will be there and, I have to admit, I don’t know any of them. The e-mail read:
| We are pleased to announce and welcome 14 year old phenom swimmer, Chloe Sutton to our field of Seeded Elite Swimmers. Chloe just took home the Gold Medal at the Pan Pacific 10k Open Water Championships in British Columbia and also captured the 10k National Champion Title earlier this summer. Just named to the National Open Water Team, Chloe will certainly be one to watch at the RCP Tiburon Mile Open water Swim.Other confirmed Elites for this year include: Sara McLarty – Defending RCP Tiburon Mile Women’s Champion; 2005 USA Triathlon Professional Rookie of the Year;2005 Open Water World Championship 5k Gold Medalist Brooke Bennett – Three-time Gold Medalist; four-time RCP Tiburon Mile Women’s Champion, 2nd in 2004 Erica Rose – 2006 Pan American 5k and 10k Open Water Gold Medalist, 2005 Open Water World Championship 5k Bronze Medalist, 3rd at the RCP Tiburon Mile in 2004 Evgeni Bezrutchenko (RUS) – 2005 World Cup 21k Silver Medalist; two-time podium finisher at the Tiburon Mile Thomas Lurz (GER) – 2005 Swimming World Co-Open Water Swimmer of the Year; 2005 10k World Champion, German National Champion and European Open Water Champion So in order for me to win this thing it looks like I’ll have to have a personal best swim. I’ve been swimming 2 miles each Monday, Wednesday and Friday all summer (except for this last two weeks) so I think I’m ready. It’s a nautical mile which is different than a regular mile. What is the difference, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you. A nautical mile is: |
- 1.852 km (exact) 1,852 meters
- 1.150779 mile (statute)
- 2025.372 yards
- 6076.1155 feet
- 1 arc minute (within 0.2 percent)
So what’s an arc minute, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you.
The nautical mile was historically defined as a minute of arc along a meridian of the Earth. It can therefore be used for approximate measures on a meridian as change of latitude on a nautical chart. According to WGS84, radius of curvature in a meridian plane is 6,399,593.6258 meters at the poles and 6,335,439.3273 meters at the Equator. By the definition of geodetic latitude, length of the minute of arc depends on the radius of curvature; distance to the angle (1 minute, in this case), not to the Earth’s center. This length equals to approx. 1861.57 meters at the poles and 1842.90 meters at the Equator. Length of a minute of arc defined by the geocentric latitude depends on the distance from the Earth’s center (and curvature). This length is greater at the Equator.
So what is WGS84, you ask? Well, I actually do know but, by popular demand, I’m not going to tell you.
OK. By now 99% of you are either:
   A) Bored to tears
   B) Pitying the geeks who understand it all
   C) Knowing that I’m actually insane enough to care about any of that crap
   D) Glad you were passing notes back and forth and missed this part of science class, or
   E) All of the above
Please don’t send me the results of the above test. I don’t want to know.
I’m sure the water will be cold and we’ll be wearing wetsuits. I know I’ll be wearing a swim suit, but Matt, being a surfer, goes “commando”. Let’s hope they don’t have wetsuit “peelers” at the end of the race like they do at Ironman races. The ultra-cold water could make that quite embarrassing…shades of the Seinfeld episode when George got walked in on while changing after a cold water swim…aka the “shrink” episode.
Since this e-mail is degenerating rapidly, I’d better quit before you all change your e-mail addresses and don’t tell me.
Just (I’m Eating Too Much And Feeling Like A Slug) Jack